Literally translated, Gua Sha means 'scraping sand.' It dates back to Ancient China and is used in the western world today mostly to dissolve muscle knots across the neck, shoulders, back and spine by scraping a stone or Gua Sha tool forcefully across the skin. It leaves a deep red 'sha rash' on the skin's surface that look like giant hickies.

The Facial Gua Sha tool is an oblong smooth, flat polished stone of jade or rose quartz, with one U-shaped end. "There's no difference in results," says Chiu. "But if you're looking for a certain energy quality, you should consider the qualities of each stone."

Jade is the most highly esteemed stone in China, where it's believed that it blesses anything it touches with grace and beauty and is valued for its protective and healing powers. Rose quartz has feminine energy. It's a heart stone of healing, nourishment, comfort, compassion, peace and unconditional love. If you just want to try it, Chiu says the glassy smooth Facial Gua Sha stones on Amazon are 'good enough,' but does not recommend those made with wood or animal horn. Chiu is working on designing one to ensure quality material as well as improved design. For now, she says Nefeli.com sells probably the highest quality facial gua sha stone — though it's a little more complicated to use.

Image via @pmnaturalskintherapy

As we sit with anticipation, our jade stone tool in hand, we spritz with Rosebrook's organic Herbal Infusion Oil (a 3-in-1 organic nourishing vitamin moisturizer, herbal oil cleanser and makeup remover), to hydrate and slightly oil our skin creating a conduit for the stone to glide smoothly without tugging.

Gua sha is a meditative practice that releases the fascia and muscles underneath the skin. It's always done in an upward motion to uplift the skin, and always the neck first. "In Chinese medicine, the neck is the gateway to our head."

And that's where we start — the back of the neck, gliding the stone slowly and smoothly starting at the shoulder and sliding up to the base of our skull. Then to the front of the neck, stroking up from our clavicle bone to jaw bone — left side, right side, then gently up the center of our throat.

"Always use one hand to hold the skin taut at the base of the stroke to assist and maximize a smooth stroke. And use some pressure, not too hard and not too light." Chiu says the biggest mistake people make is vigorously sweeping the tool using strong pressure.

"Slow it down, focus, and be one with every single nano millimeter of your skin," Chiu guides us. Be at one with your skin," Chiu guides us. "Facial Gua Sha makes you feel calm, relaxed, and reduces tension. It's very powerful." And it is.

Moving the stone horizontally between two fingers and your thumb is tricky to start, but once you get the hand of it, you almost don't want to stop. If your hand starts to cramp, it means you're not holding the stone correctly — lightly firm but loose.

Image courtesy Nicola Bridges

"On the face, the rule is always up," which relieves congestion, says Chiu. "Think how a face lift pulls everything up and to the side and behind the ears. We want to mimic that kind of lift."

This time, instead of using the straight end of the stone, we use the U-shaped end, gently and smoothly pulling it from the middle of the chin, along the jawbone to under our ears and, yes, giving it a wiggle, on both sides.

Next, we move to our cheeks and go back to the straight end, drawing the stone flat to the skin, from under our nose, out and up to our ear.

"Without thinking, we spend a lot of our day holding our faces in a squished in position," says Chiu. "Gua sha opens our face up and out," for a much more pleasant and smooth expression.

On our cheekbones, we use the u-shaped end, repeating the jawbone techniques. Flat strokes center and under the eyes, then moving to our eyebrows, repeating the cheekbone move over the brow bone, out, and an end-swish up to our skull bone at the temple. We finish with the pesky '11' lines between our brows, from the top of our nose gliding up to our hairline.

Chiu and Rosebrook tell us to sit a minute and just breath. I'm in a relaxed state, feeling like I'm enjoying the bliss of face yoga shavasana. I open my eyes, not realizing I'd shut them, and sigh a deep breath out. The rest of the room doing the same. We are now students of facial gua sha. I want to bow and say, "Namaste." Chiu and Rosebrook smile and nod knowingly.

Image courtesy Nicola Bridges

My skin glowed — radiant, smooth and healthy. My brow and whole face looked open and relaxed, the lines on my forehead all but gone. And I was slightly, sleepily beaming, in a super-relaxed happy place.

Holding up a tin of Ouli's Ointment, Rosebrook recommended we moisturize our lips. As we do, my tablemate, who coincidentally happened to be Ouli's Ointment creator and L.A.-based green makeup artist Stephanie G-M exclaims what we're all feeling: "I feel like I've been drugged in the face — and it feels sooooo good!"

Image courtesy Nicola Bridges

Chiu is somewhat unique in blending Chinese medicine for skin treatment and rejuvenation with esthetics and beauty. But as more and more of us are turning to a holistic approach to body, well-being and beauty, she suspects mainstream skin care estheticians and dermatologists will jump on the gua sha facial bandwagon.

In the meantime, while it may not feel as pampering as in a spa setting, Chiu says look for acupuncturists and holistic massage therapists trained to do gua sha on the face. "This," she says, "is just the start."

Image courtesy Nicola Bridges